President Trump

Bingo. You talk a good game about "open debate," but what you really mean is "everyone shut up and listen to me."

Categorizing these rants as "random thoughts" is hilariously disingenuous.

Discussion forums are for discussions.

Right, you're not in the mood for debate, but you went onto a public forum where debates are commonplace and posted stark political opinions.

Gimme a break.

Discussion forums are for discussions - yet how many posts get no response? My guess is the majority of them from what I observe (otherwise you wouldn't have any threads dating back decades that have never been updated). So why aren't you out there instructing all members that they must respond to every post because it's obvious a lot of posts are not rendering any discussion?

Look at the Rate the Movie thread - few ratings generate discussions, most are just statements of opinion that go unresponded to. So, the same can be said of any thread - on this thread people could just come and state an opinion about something Trump related (and they DO!) - and if someone wants to question it that's their prerogative and if someone wants to debate it that's their prerogative.

Here's the thing - when it's a controversial statement that you personally don't agree with, you want to debate it - which is totally understandable and which is your right, but you can't demand debate even as site owner, just like I can't demand it as a member when I disagree with other members who decide they don't feel like responding, or no longer feel like engaging me, or they only choose to respond to one particular point while ignoring all others, or decide their only response will be an emoticon slapping its hand to its forehead.

First, because there's a distinction between a comment which doesn't generate discussion, and someone actively refusing to engage in discussion in response to what they said.

Second, because it's disingenuous in the extreme to pretend that "Batman Begins was pretty cool" is akin to dropping incendiary accusations on serious topics in a debate-filled political thread.

Third, I have instructed people to this effect, actually, even in non-political contexts. Naturally, I only bother to do it under extreme circumstances where is someone is consistently refusing to engage, yet also insisting on repeating themselves. Like this one.

Also, you realize you're debating me right now, right? So when you say you don't want to "debate," you don't seem to mean the "make claims" part, or the "questioning/arguing with others" part. So what's left? Just the part where you defend what you say, right?

Source?

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Trump declares Roe v. Wade abortion anniversary to be ‘Sanctity of Human Life Day’



https://www.whitehouse.gov/president...uman-life-day/

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/tr...y-of-human-lif

It takes this kind of very stable genius to remind us that every life that will eventually work its way out of some woman's *****, even if she's a crooked fat pig bleeding out of somewhere, has intrinsic value as a human being, no matter what s***hole country they're from!
And that every child may eventually contribute in ways like the world has never seen before: maybe not with fire and fury, but perhaps by adding to the the future as a scientist, doctor, engineer or reality TV game show host! Even a child who today dreams of space travel may one day tweet out a path to the stars, and where once stood a toe-headed little rocket man, now stands an astronaut on the edge of a new frontier!
We imagine every spirit that would become a human life knew what they signed up for, but even if they end up becoming a bad hombre, there will always be some very fine people on both sides of human nature because all human life has worth ...and, believe me, that's not fake news!

Who said I never make fun of Trump?

However did they know back then.

trumpery
ˈtrʌmp(ə)ri/Submit
archaic
noun
noun: trumpery; plural noun: trumperies
1.
attractive articles of little value or use.
"None of your woollen drapery, nor linen drapery, nor any of your frippery or trumpery. I hate ostentation"
synonyms: trinkets, baubles, cheap finery, knick-knacks, ornaments, bibelots, gewgaws, gimcracks
"tables piled with all sorts of trumpery"
practices or beliefs that are superficially or visually appealing but have little real value or worth.
"he exposed their ideals as trumpery"
adjective
adjective: trumpery
1.
showy but worthless.
"trumpery jewellery"
delusive or shallow.
"that trumpery hope which lets us dupe ourselves"
Origin

late Middle English (denoting trickery): from Old French tromperie, from tromper ‘deceive’.

I can't wait to say "Merry Christmas" in February!

PREDICTION

If the Democrats keep their current electoral strategy going, Trump will win in 2020.

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

I think Trump needs to stay full 8 years in the US presidency. Because that will allow breathing time for China to expand it's sphere of influence without risking WW3. If the US had a "normal" president tensions would be much higher between it, Russia and China. Hence, a clown president might perform a good geopolitical function in the long run.

I just want to know why Conan O'Brien was giving a rebuttal?

Because Andy Richter gave the State of the Union.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Speaking of false statements: according to MSNBC on Tuesday night, Trump "forced" the parents of the girls slain by MS-13 gang members to attend the address, he "tortured" them by forcing them to relive the horror, and then he painted "all immigrants" as violent murdering gang members.

How do they get away with stating outright lies?
And it wasn't just once, they had their pundits repeating these falsehoods over and over.

Everyone knows these parents were there by invitation, that they chose to attend (they didn't have armed Secret Service agents show up at their homes and force them into a car to come to the address by holding guns to their heads!) They were featured guests, and if they'd chosen not to be there then they would not have been. And as guests, they knew WHY they were there and that their daughters' deaths would be mentioned.

Trump has never said "all" immigrants are violent or gang members. The left seems to purposefully miss the point (and thus continues to promote violations that put innocent lives in jeopardy) - that without rule of law regarding immigration, then anyone can get in... and they do, including violent criminals like the MS-13 murderers.

Without controls; criminals, drug cartels, gangs and terrorists will use the same avenues of trespass as those seeking a better life.
It's a very simple point - anyone who doesn't get it only doesn't get it on purpose.

Oh lets not sit here and pretend that whole routine didnt reek of exploitative fear mongering against immigrants and hispanics. This is all just part of his heartless campaign to deep six the Unaccompanied Minors Program which the extreme anti-immigration hardliners in his ear hate with a passion. They like to paint the program as a pipe line for criminals and gang members when in fact the vast majority of the kids that have come in through that program have been running FROM gangs or immediate danger of some kind (and most MS-13 members are recruited in the US anyway). The fact is that the crime rate for immigrants is LOWER than it is for american citizens. So why always with the scare tactics? Why such blatant exploitation of a few horrible cases of violence over and over? Why the drum beat about Hispanics and violence and crime? I realize its red meat to his immigrant hating base but it clearly doesn’t jive with the numbers. But I guess when has Trump ever let reality get in the way of twisting the facts or lying outright before.

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Farewell and adieu to you fair Spanish ladies...

I notice when Trump is saying something awful, the defense is often "that's not LITERALLY what he said!"

But when he just straight-up lies, it's "oh, you know what he probably meant, you're taking him too literally."

Oy.

Yeah, for the hundredth time: you should source this stuff. Especially if you're going to literally put quotes around it.

I don't even necessarily doubt this one, but making claims without sourcing them is a really bad intellectual habit, and I know from experience that it's often just hiding a bad memory, confirmation bias, or both. And sometimes it's just an uncharitable interpretation masquerading as a fact.

Speaking of outright lies...

This deserved more than two reps.

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Letterboxd

Yes, and for the hundredth time, these networks don't put their 24/7 airings on YouTube to source, nor do they post transcripts of every one of their shows or the words of every one of their pundits - no network does.

You said you don't doubt it which I appreciate because...



I understand that most would not doubt it (not just on the basis of my veracity) but because if you only listen to a network like MSNBC on even the rarest of occasions, it's pretty obvious to quickly discern their position when it comes to the current administration... and it's pretty easy to figure out that they go ballistic which each of Trump's tweets, so the amount of derangement they show after something like a STOTUA is easy to both predict and believe when someone tells you their interpretation was not only off base, but included crazy things that weren't just not true, but an interpretation that any rational person listening to the address would never come up with (like saying Trump forced guests to attend, tortured them and painted all immigrants as killers).

Also, having a legal system of immigration in accordance with national security: attempting to control borders and knowing who comes into the country is not, nor has ever been an "awful" concept - it's a common sense concept that is practiced by the majority of countries on the planet as not only part of their national security, but as their obligation to their own citizenry. It's only made to seem awful by those who suddenly oppose even rules of law they once supported IF or when they come from Trump.